Are We Really Gone?
by P. Regas
Summary: Chernobyl Diaries - They sealed their fate the second that they went against the guard's orders. Now stuck in Chernobyl with their future unbeknownst to them, the group must rely on Paul and Chris' brother Alex in order to keep their sanity. Are they really gone or will they be able to return to their previous lives?


As the two brothers walked down the stairs, the two women in front of them, the younger of the two turned to the oldest.

"So, you, ah spoken to dad?" Chris asked looking over at his older brother.

"No, I ah, no." Paul replied.

"You should call him." Chris said smiling sadly at his brother, "Have you spoken to Alex?"

"Ah, just heard from him. Apparently his bosses _finally_ decided to give him some time off _and_ he may be able to come to Moscow." Paul smirked nudging Chris in the shoulder.

"What are you suggesting?" Chris asked stopping in his tracks and staring at his brother with an odd expression.

"Well, apparently he told me his boss is pretty rich, said the ladies are always after him..." Paul trailed off giving Chris a suggestive smile.

"Okay, okay! Not like I wouldn't be surprised, but I _never want to hear that again!_" Chris said laughing as he came to a stop by Natalie and Amanda.

"What don't you want to hear again, babe?" Natalie asked leaning into Chris as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Well, Paul was just telling me how Alex is going to be visiting and possibly coming to Moscow and how his boss is rich and a ladies man-" Chris glared at Paul, "and he suggested that Alex was sleeping with his boss which I repeat, I never want to hear again." the group laughed quietly before they fell into a long silence.

"So how come this'll be the first time we meet?" Natalie inquired curiously.

"His work I guess. Not something he can easily get away from. Hell, I haven't heard from him in years, neither has Paul, mom or dad."

A small commotion around the corner where they had to turn to walk down the road brought all of them to the attention of some thugs that immediately began to approach them.

"Ostav'te ikh v pokoye." a quiet voice said from behind the thugs.

"A zachem?" the leader of the group turned around to face the owner of the voice.

"Potomu chto ya ne uveren, chto vy blednyy." the voice who they finally saw belonged to a young man, became deadly quiet and fully threatening.

"Chto zastavlyayet vas takim osobennym?" one of the other thugs asked.

"Daichenko." it seemed to take a minute for the name to register in the thugs' minds, but eventually they cautiously left, their eyes never leaving the young man who threatened them.

"Sorry about them, they can be a bit of a...hassle at times." the young man said finally walking closer to them. He was obviously American, but he had obviously spoken Russian for a long time because the accent filtered through.

"Holy hell." Paul said while looking astonished, "You have a hell of a lot of explaining to do mister."

"I would expect nothirng less."

"Paul?" Chris asked not quite recognizing the person that his brother was talking to.

"You've changed." Paul commented looking the young man up and down for a few seconds.

"What, did you expect me to never change?"

"Alex?" Chris asked looking even more shocked than Natalie and Amanda, "What the—I didn't even recognize you!"

"Eh, you wouldn't be the first person Chris." Alex smirked as he pulled both of his brothers into a hug.

"And you must be Natalie and Amanda, no?" he asked bending over to kiss both of their hands making them giggle.

"What a gentleman." Paul fluttered his eyelashes at his youngest brother.

"Well, at least I have manners." Alex shot back.

"Touché." Chris said and Paul gave an indignant laugh, punching his brother in the arm. It was good to have the family back.

"So, how've things been?" Alex asked, putting his hands in the pockets of his thick tan coat.

"Fine I guess. Mom's worried sick about you and Paul, for a while there she thought you were dead until you sent that letter. You should call her." Chris said patting his younger brother's shoulder.

"I know…but work, let's just say I don't get much free time and only about four hours of sleep." Alex gave a humorless laugh as they continued walking towards Paul's place.

"What kind of boss do you have? That's cruelty!" Amanda looked horrified at his revelation about his work.

"I have a hard-headed son of a bitch for a boss, Amanda, it's not like I can walk up to him and say 'I'm not working today," because I know he'd shoot me then and there."

"But if you're working so much, then surely he wouldn't fire you because you must be good at what you're doing."

"By the way, what do you do?" Paul inquired stopping to look at Alex.

"Ah," Alex scratched the back of his neck, "I just do government stuff…well it's not really 'stuff' so to speak, but I can't give you any details…if I did, I'd have to kill you."

"Are they really tat secretive?" Natalie asked raising an eyebrow.

"And you live in America." Alex pointed out, "They are even more secretive than the Ukrainian government, even more than the SSR."

The next day, at the café, Alex helped them translate the menu seeing as Paul wasn't there, but they decided to wait on food until he arrived.

"Look Amanda I want to apologize for Paul's behavior last night." Chris said.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I mean, I know the type. I'm sure it's just talk." Amanda brushed off Chris' apology.

"Well, with him it's not always all talk."

"I can handle him, I'm not too worried about it. And I'm sure deep down-"

"Very, very deep down." Natalie added with a laugh.

"He's a good guy you know? It's just an act." Amanda finished.

"And he's related to you babe and you turned out alright." Natalie said hugging Chris' arm.

"Yeah, you're alright." Amanda commented.

"Just let me know if I need to kick his ass for you, okay?" Chris replied as Paul walked down and took a seat by Chris.

"Morning children. How we doing?" he asked taking a sip of Chris' latte, "Now I know I said we were going to Moscow, and I'm going to ask you a question and I want an answer."

"The answer's already no." Chris said glaring slightly at Paul.

"C'mon, Chris, give 'im a chance to talk." Alex said from across the table.

"Have you guys ever heard of Chernobyl?" Paul asked.

"Yeah," most of them chorused.

"Isn't that where the nuclear disaster happened?" Natalie added.

"Yes," Alex's voice was soft, "on April 26, 1986."

"I met this really cool guy Uri, he's a uh—have you ever heard of extreme tourism?" Paul asked.

"No, somehow I haven't." Natalie responded.

"Well, there's this place called Pripyat. It's the town next to Chernobyl. Uri who is _'very excited to take us there'_ is going to show us the town that was literally abandoned overnight. Factories, schools, towns, apartments, everything's still there. Imagine the photo shoot you could have there Amanda?" Paul asked.

"Okay, I get that, but radiation levels are probably pretty high. That's dangerous." Amanda said.

"Nope, we'll only be there for a day."

"Okay, so how are we going to get there?" Natalie asked crossing her arms over her chest and looking at Paul.

"Uri's gonna take us, he's got a van." Paul smirked.

"A van?" was the response from all of them.

"So, by a show of hands, who's coming with Paul to Chernobyl?" Paul asked.

"So, aside from the sketchy van situation, and if you promise that this tour is safe, I think it could be kind of fun." Amanda spoke hesitantly after she and Natalie had raised their hands.

"You guys are so weak!" Chris exclaimed sitting back in his chair.

"Are not!" the two girls exclaimed and Amanda attempted to explain to Chris about how the trip would be fun.

"So, he's been doing this for a while?" Alex inquired and Paul nodded. "Well, I suppose I can tag along,"

And so the group took off to Uri's Extreme Travel after they had eaten.


End file.
